Whole-Brain Phase-Contrast Tomography in a primate model of Multiple Sclerosis

X-ray Phase Contrast Tomography (XPCT) recently emerged as a highly relevant imaging modality in preclinical neuroscience thanks to the exquisite contrast it allows for both white matter tracts and blood vessels. Imaging full brains is of major importance as neurological diseases are most often not restricted to delimited areas of infarction but affect neuronal or vascular networks well beyond from lesion cores. Until recently, the size of the field of view permitted by XPCT facilities only allowed the imaging of rodent brains. The recent development of Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT) protocols on the ESRF beamlines BM05/BM18 enables to image intact monkey brains. We plan to perform a high-resolution 3D tractography of the white matter and segmentation of blood vessel architecture at the scale of the whole brain. Brains from animals responding differently to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a model for studying multiple sclerosis, will be compared.

X射线相位衬度层析成像（X-ray Phase Contrast Tomography, XPCT）近年来凭借其对白质束与血管均优异的衬度表现，成为临床前神经科学领域极具应用价值的成像模态。全脑成像具有重要意义：神经系统疾病通常并非局限于梗死的限定区域，而是会累及远超病灶核心范围的神经元或血管网络。此前，XPCT设备所能提供的视场尺寸仅支持啮齿类动物大脑的成像。近期，欧洲同步辐射装置（ESRF）BM05/BM18光束线上开发的分层相位衬度层析成像（Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography, HiP-CT）协议，已实现对完整猴脑的成像。本研究拟开展全脑尺度下的高分辨率三维白质束追踪，并完成血管结构的分割工作。届时，将对实验性自身免疫性脑脊髓炎（多发性硬化研究模型）呈现不同响应的动物大脑进行对比分析。